In April 2013 the US Navy announced that it was deploying a laser weapon prototype in the Persian Gulf. For the first time the ships are going to be equipped with a laser attack weapon able to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones as the tests have shown. The Navy calls its new weapon LAWS (which stands for the Laser Weapon System). The prototype shipboard laser will be deployed on a converted amphibious transport and docking ship in the Persian Gulf to counter Iranian fast-attack boats and, possibly, remotely piloted aircraft. The USS Ponce serves as a floating base for military operations and humanitarian assistance in the waters of the Middle East and southwestern Asia. The ship was selected because of its mission to be an enduring presence in the Gulf to counter Iranian maritime threats in the region.

The laser will be operational next year. Many of the details about how the laser works remain secret, such as how far its beam can travel, how powerful it is or how much power is used to generate it. But Navy officials have provided a few unclassified details. For example, the laser is designed to be a «plug and play» system that integrates into a ship's existing targeting technologies and power grids. Those factors make it a surprisingly cheap weapon.

The deployment of prototype is meant as a warning to Iran not to step up activity in the Gulf in the next few months. «Equipping Navy surface ships with lasers could lead to changes in naval tactics, ship design and procurement plans for ship-based weapons, bringing about a technological shift for the Navy — a ‘game changer’ — comparable to the advent of shipboard missiles in the 1950s», said the assessment, by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress. (3) The study found that the new high-energy laser «could provide Navy surface ships with a more cost-effective means of countering certain surface, air and ballistic missile targets»

So far lasers are not effective in bad weather because the beam can be disturbed or scattered by water vapor, as well as by smoke, sand and dust. The weapon cannot attack threats over the horizon and is subject to countermeasures like coating vessels and drones with reflective surfaces. The first prototype is not powerful enough to take on jet fighters or missiles on their approach. The advantages are low cost (less than $1 per sustained pulse) and a limitless supply of ammunition (pulses of high energy) so long as the ship can generate electricity. The beam can reach its target at the speed of light and can track fast-moving targets.

One of recent laser system development examples is U.S.-based Raytheon Corp’s laser close-in weapon system (CIWS). First unveiled publically at the Farnborough Airshow in July 2010, the company demonstrates its ability to disable a variety of objects including aircraft, drones, rockets and surface ships, using a 50kW solid-state laser beam. In comparison with the U.S. Navy’s Phalanx radar-controlled CIWS, which uses a multiple-barreled 20mm gun to hit approaching objects. The laser CIWS has the advantage of longer range and, theoretically, unlimited ammunition.

Northrop Grumman Corp is also developing the Gamma, a high-energy, solid-state laser (HEL) for the purpose of destroying incoming anti-ship cruise missiles, and is cooperating with the U.S. Air Mobility Command and the Air National Guard on a KC-135 Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures-based pod that uses laser beams to disable incoming surface-to-air missiles. The U.S. Navy also has systems under development that are intended to shoot down enemy drones homing in on surface vessels. Similarly, the U.S. Army announced in 2011 that it was doing research on Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC), which can fire a laser-guided, 50 billion watt «lightning bolt» at a target.